Living the high life
by wolfypuppypiles
Summary: Peter crawls into Ned's window wearing his spider suit but hes acting a little...strange AKA the one where Peter is high on pain meds and doesn't want to behave


Ned sighed, writing another equation down as he finished his homework. God, he was bored, and it especially sucked knowing you had to do your homework when your best friend was out there doing super cool hero stuff.

Peter was probably swinging around the city, protecting the innocent, and beating up bad guys. Or maybe he was training with Black Widow, or battling aliens with Thor. Ned pushed homework across his desk, wishing for anything to distract him from the inane math questions and-

Ned's head whipped around as his bedroom window slid open, a giant spider crawling through-! Oh, that was Peter.

"Dude, you scared me! What are you doing here?"

Peter crawled across the ceiling, and appeared to be giggling.

"Hehe, Ned look. No hands."

The laughing Spider-Man lifted his hands, leaving his feet stuck to the ceiling while the rest of his body hung upside down.

And then he promptly fell to the floor, landing with a thump.

Ned let out a startled yelp, Peter groaning in pain before giggling again, words slurring just a little.

"Oops, I fell. I forgot my foot isn't working."

Ned frowned at that. Peter was acting funny, and he was getting a little concerned.

The other teenager wasn't even trying to get up, just lying on the ground and staring up at him with his mask eyes wide.

"What do you mean your foot isn't working? Is the suit broken?"

Spider-Man's eyes narrowed as he tilted his head, as if confused. "Huh?"

Ned let out an annoyed huff of air and knelt beside his friend, trying to be patient. "You said your foot wasn't working. What's wrong with it?"

Peter seemed to need to think about it, and Ned watched him with concern until he finally decided on an answer. He was getting more worried as time went on, because Peter seemed really out of it and confused. Maybe he was just tired?

"Hmmm…oh! Yeah, ha its broken."

Ned frowned, looking down at Peters feet. "The suit's broken?"

Peter shook his head a little, unfazed. "Nope, my foot is."

Ned frowned, taking a closer look at his friend's feet. One of them was laying on its side, and the suit seemed to be thicker around his ankle, as if Peter was smuggling blocks or sticks under the material, bracing the broken limb.

"What?! Why are you here if you're hurt? You should be with Mr Stark or something so he can help you!"

That made Peter move, his eyes squinting again he fired a web to the ceiling and pulled himself up, out of Ned's reach.

"No! I don't want him to see, he'll get mad!"

Ned watched as Peter fired another web across the room, stretching and pulling it, attaching more web strings to make himself a hammock. Okay, that was cool.

"Why would he be mad? Are you grounded again? Did you break his rules?" That would be easy to do, Tony had about a million of them. No staying out too late, no messing with the suit settings, no ditching his tracker. Although, they all seemed like smart rules.

Peter lowered himself into the hammock, being careful of his bad ankle, and curled up into a ball. It was kind of strange, having him there in his full Spider suit, looking so vulnerable.

He pulled off his mask and rubbed his eyes tiredly, leaving his hair sticking up in erratic tufts.

"No, he just always gets mad when I get hurt. And then he tells Aunt May and she gets sad, and I don't want anyone to be smad at me. I meant mad…or…sad? I can't remember."

Ned narrowed his eyes at his friend, watching him laugh at his own fumble, before gently pulling the Spider-Man mask from his hands.

"Okay, Peter just…let me talk to Karen for a second."

Peter nodded and rocked himself in his hammock, while Ned pulled the mask on, hearing Karen's pleasant greeting once he did.

"Hello, Ned. It's been a while."

"Hey Karen, I just wanted to ask you what's wrong with Peter. Cause he's acting really weird. Is he drunk?"

Karen almost sounded like she was laughing. "Peter cannot get drunk, although I believe he is high."

Ned's eyes almost bugged out of his head, as he turned to look back at Peter, who was singing to himself as he crawl/hopped across Ned's ceiling to the kitchen, with one foot and both hands. He quickly followed after him, still talking to Karen.

"What!? Why is he high?"

Peter crawled to the fridge and used another web as he hung from the ceiling, his good foot bracing against it while the other was flung out to the side as he rifled through the fridge. Ned was so very glad his parents were out, and not home to see a baby avenger make a mess of their kitchen.

"He broke his ankle while on a mission, so I used the splint capabilities in his suit, and gave him a shot of pain medication so that he could get home. Dr Banner created a special medication for Peter so that his metabolism wouldn't burn through it so fast. It seems to be having some adverse side effects."

Ned watched as Peter shoved a few sandwiches in his mouth, humming happily around the bread and peanut butter.

"Yeah, you could say that."

Her kind voice came again, while Ned caught various food items that Peter was dropping, placing a Coke can back in the fridge just in time to catch a ketchup bottle.

"Would you like me to call for some assistance?"

"Peter! Put that down, and get off the ceiling! Yeah, Karen can you call Mr Stark?"

Peter turned his head at the name, almost falling from the ceiling again in his haste to stop the call.

"No! Ned don't!"

"Initiating call."

Lights and call options crawled across Ned's vision as Tony picked up, sounding mildly bored.

"Peter, how's the patrol going, anything exciting happening today?"

Ned dodged an annoyed hand from Peter, as he replied, trying to think of a way to explain the situation.

"Umm hey, Mr Stark. It's actually Ned, Peter's friend?"

There was a pause, and then Tony's voice came back, sounding a little mad.

"Why do you have his suit, where is he?"

Peter was making irritated little grunts as he pushed at Ned, trying to get his mask back.

"Well, he's at my house and he's acting all weird. Karen said he broke his ankle so he had some pain meds but they were really strong and…he's high. He's also eating all my food and leaving webs everywhere, and I don't know how I'm going to explain the footprints on the ceiling to my mom."

Peter whined again, sounding like a child. "Ned, you tattle tale!"

Ned could hear the Iron Man suits blasters in the background of the call, as well as metal clanging.

"Dammit, Peter. Okay we'll be there soon."

He hung up before Ned could ask who the 'we' was referring to, and he grabbed one of Peters hands before it could smack him in the face.

"Peter, stop! He's coming to get you, so just calm down and sit still."

Peter frowned, hair messy and erratic as he hung from the ceiling. Actually, his face was set into more of a pout, and Ned almost laughed.

"Why did you tell on me? You're supposed to be on my side!"

Ned pulled the mask off and furrowed his brows. "I am on your side! I'm trying to help you!"

Peter crossed his arms, glaring at Ned like he was about to throw a tantrum.

"Well, I don't want your help and I'm not going with Tony!"

Ned had never thought he'd be scolding Spider-Man, or sounding like his mom, but there he was, hands on hips in his kitchen and telling off an Avenger.

"Yes, you are. You're hurt and you need to do what your told."

Peter pulled himself up his web, crawling across the ceiling and walls to Ned's bedroom and locking himself in before Ned could get there and intervene.

"You can't make me, I'm Spider-Man!"

Ned groaned, listening to the lock on his door click, and resigned himself to wait for backup to arrive.

Thankfully, it didn't take long before the sound of the Iron Man suit could be heard from outside. Ned could hear Peter shout out another protest, before a knock came at the door, and Ned went to answer it.

And when he did, it took a few seconds for him to process what he was seeing. The Iron Man suit was standing at attention by his garage, and in his doorway, was Tony Stark and Captain freaking America.

Tony frowned and looked behind him. "Where's baby genius?"

Cap frowned at Tony before offering a hand to an open-mouthed Ned. "Sorry for his lack of manners, and that we took a little long to get here; we were training when you called. I'm Steve, and you must be Ned, Peters told me a lot about you."

Tony patted the teenager on the shoulder as he walked past them, into the house, as Ned took Steve's massive hand and shook it.

"Yeah, we've met before. Now, where's Peter?"

Ned couldn't really think past the fact that Captain America knew his name, and was in his house, but managed to stutter out a few words.

"He…ugh he locked himself in my room. He says he doesn't want to go with you, because you'll be mad at him."

Steve smiled politely and let go of the kid's hand, following Tony inside as Ned took them to his room. Tony was already grumpy, as he knocked on the bedroom door.

"Why would I be mad? Peter, come out of there right now!"

An unhappy shout came from inside, slightly muffled. "No!"

Tony looked ready to break the door down, and Ned was about to very politely ask him not to break his house, when Steve stopped the other man with a hand to the chest.

"Tony, this is probably why he didn't tell you he was hurt in the first place. You can't get mad at him every time. Let me do this."

Tony didn't look happy about it, but waved a hand, ushering him through. Steve gently knocked on the door.

"Peter? It's Steve, Ned said you needed some help, are you okay?"

There was a pause, before Peter's voice came back, sounding smaller and a little less grumpy.

"Steve?"

The first avenger smiled a little at the fondness of Peter's tone. "Yeah, do you think you could tell me what happened? So, I can help?"

Peters voice sounded tired, and Tony listened carefully, looking more concerned than mad, now.

"I hurt my ankle. I think it broke. But it was an accident and I saved the lady."

Steve nodded, although the teenager couldn't see it through the door.

"No one's mad at you, Pete. Can you open the door, so I can take a look at it? Maybe get you back to the compound so Bruce can fix it up?"

Peter didn't answer, maybe not believing that he wasn't in trouble, and Steve nudged Tony's arm, looking at him expectantly. The other man sighed and stood closer to the door.

"Peter, I'm not mad at you. We just need to fix that ankle, buddy. Come on, it has to be hurting."

He still didn't answer, and Tony and Steve looked at each other, unsure, before turning to Ned.

"You got any ideas?"

Ned was still trying to just process the fact that he had three Avengers in his house, but nodded and tried to act like he wasn't losing his mind with excitement.

"You could bribe him?"

Tony frowned but didn't seem to completely hate the idea. "With what? An x-box? A car?"

This time Ned frowned. "No, he doesn't even drive yet. Just say you'll watch a move with him or something, he really likes hanging out with you guys."

Tony raised an eyebrow and turned back to the door. "Peter, if you open the door, I'll let you pick any movie you want for us to all watch together."

That got an answer, Peter's voice was high and exited. "Really?"

"Yep, Cap and I will watch it with you, and probably some of the others, I don't think Nat's busy at all this week, and you know Bruce likes spending time with you."

Ned's mind was blowing a little more with each name mentioned, and he tried to contain his excitement at the knowledge that his best friend knew the Avengers personally.

Peter's voice was hesitant and small. "Can Ned come?"

Tony and Steve turned to a wide-eyed Ned. Tony took a few seconds to consider the pros and cons, before shrugging. "Sure, he can come."

Ned almost threw up with excitement. He was going to meet the Avengers. What the hell. God, Peter was the best.

Finally, they heard another web being shot, followed by a soft thump as it landed on the door, and the lock being clicked. Steve pushed the door open and they all walked through, to see Peter curled up under a blanket in his web hammock.

Tony walked over to him, smiling a little as he sighed in relief at seeing the kid okay, as he brushed the teenager's hair back, voice soft.

"You okay?"

Peter nodded, although he looked miserable. "My ankle hurts and I'm tired, I just wanna go to bed."

Steve admired Peter's handy work all over the room, picking up discarded webs as he smiled at Tony.

"I guess the drugs have worn off."

Peter looked at Tony with those huge, innocent eyes of his. "I'm sorry I didn't call you, the pain meds made everything feel so weird and confusing and I just wanted to go somewhere safe where I could sleep."

Tony nodded. "It's okay, kiddo let's just get you to Bruce so he can fix you up."

Peter nodded and Steve walked over to the hammock, reaching up to pull the teenager from the webbing. The drugs had worn off, leaving him tired and in pain again, and he didn't want to even think about walking on his bad ankle, which was why he didn't protest to being carried.

Steve lifted Peter onto his back as the teenager wrapped his arms around the super soldier's neck. Ned couldn't believe that Captain America was giving Peter a piggyback ride, it just seemed so strangely soft for the both of them.

Tony turned to Ned's desk and took a pen and paper from his supplies, scribbling down a bunch of numbers before handing it to him.

"Thanks for calling me, you did the right thing. And we both know Peter is like a magnet for trouble, so if something like this happens again, just call me. I put Steve's number down too, and Happy's if it's not so serious. I'll have Peter tell you when the movie night is, since apparently that's happening now. Anyway, thanks and sorry about the mess he made."

Ned nodded, and went to say goodbye to Peter, only to see that he'd fallen asleep, cheek pressed against Steve's shoulder. Tony smiled fondly at him and took his mask from Ned, before turning to Steve.

"Come on, let's get our Spider-baby home."

They left, the same way they'd come in, and Ned had to clean up all the webs left around the house, but how could he mind? Despite his best friend being hurt, that had been the greatest experience of his life.


End file.
